Damshiq Scribbles - part 2

Our hotel situated within 5 minutes walk to Old City Damascus.. It is not cheap.. 3/4 star hotel with USD 130 per night.. BTW, USD is widely acceptable in Syria.. I prefer the hotel location, and because of my planner's background, I plan to walk, to feel the town, people and their life..

Damascus (or Damshiq) listed as one of UNESCO World Heritage site (Malacca and Penang also included recently). Hmm.. I will not scribbles about the history, geography etc.. Wikipedia have done a good job on that..

We check-in at 3.00 am, (paid for full night!!), and in the morning wake up by the nice view of Damascus Old City (photo shows actual view from hotel) . Word cannot describe it.. the city looks old, tired but keep stood still!.. It is full with minaret and basically built with old bricks (from mud plus sand). The hotel situated in the middle of morning market (or daily? it is open from 5 am and still running until 11 pm!!)- "Souq Al Har" with fresh vegetable, fruits, daily needed items - clothes, shoes.. patronised by locals and tourist alike. (It looks like pasar malam in Malaysia)

We walk towards Al-Hamidiyeh Souk, in early winter morning - 10 am, where the busy street start alive. The Syrian people, most of them look poor, sell everything on the streets.. old clothes, winter jackets (hubby bought one - 15000 SYP - about RM150), cheap dolls and toys, real telephone and dummy handphone, scarf, fresh drinks direct squeeze from lemons or pomegranates (delima), home made table clothes, silk and cotton, and so on. Hubby mentioned about their patient and calm faces, accepted whatever fate given to them, whatever "rezeki" given by ALLAH swt to them..

The childrens also sell something.. from magnet-plastic-fruits to pirates CD.. it disturbed me a lot.. are they schooling? where is their parents? Most of the teenagers also wandering around.. may be I am exaggerate because this is school holiday.. The old city is still inhabited and this children might come from the upper floor house of old building - spreads in the city.. One thing for sure, even if they are loathing around, they did not steal or snatch, cheat, bother or interfere with the tourists (they did not stare at female tourist either!), not even smile at us..

Damshiq surprisingly one of the safest city in the world! But then politically or unwillingly not formally listed, but mentioned in lot of travel notes.. Our experience here prove it. One of our "scary" night was being approach by a group of Syrian teenagers asking where we are..(it is 8.00 pm at night, we were alone at one of hundred small passage in Damshiq old city, with dark and scary centuries old building everywhere...). Apparently they just want to ensure we know our location.

Photo shows the hot drinks seller (tea, coffee, milo) and Allysa in front of Old City (notice the street-seller items at the left, and teenagers wandering at the back - next to Salahuddin statue).